Cátedra

Editorial

2025-08-20T21:55:12+00:00

The University of Panama between Pan-Americanor National Project

2025-08-18T17:15:28+00:00

The purpose of this investigation is to unravel the formulation of

the components of the university mission during the gestation of the University of Panama, within the framework of the oscillation between a Pan-American and a national project. The achievement of the expected results found support in the historical logical method, which, in addition to describing the course of events and the impact of historical conditions, uncovers the trajectory of the founding mission statement. It is based on documentary analysis, especially of relevant discourses and content. Eleven years into the university’s existence, the dilemma between a Pan- American or Panamanian university project has been resolved with the definitive adoption of the national alternative under the name of the University of Panama. The Political Constitution of 1946 grants it autonomy and mandates that its activities must include the study of national problems and cultural dissemination. Law 48 of 1946 established the name of the University of Panama and established its substantive functions: the study of professions, scientific research, cultural dissemination, and the provision of curricula in line with social aspirations and demands. This institutionalization demonstrates an initial comprehensive process of the university’s original mission.

Sovereignty and Consequences of the Defense of the Panama Canal

2025-08-19T15:22:59+00:00

Twenty-five years after Panamanian administration of the Canal, the country celebrates its achievements in sovereignty and development. However, in the current geopolitical context, threats to its control are resurfacing. A group of Republican congressmen in the United States has promoted the “Panama Canal Buyback” bill, with the support of President-elect Donald Trump, who has expressed his intention to regain control of the Canal. We have initiated an investigation into the role of the Canal not only as a key infrastructure but also as a symbol of national identity and a cornerstone of Panamanian sovereignty. From a historical and strategic perspective, it is argued that the response to these challenges must transcend confrontation and be based on active diplomacy, South- South cooperation, and the strengthening of international alliances. In this way, Panama can consolidate its position as a sovereign actor in the management of its most valuable resource and prevent its history from once again being defined by external interests

Centenary of the elimination of the taft compact

2025-08-19T15:39:58+00:00

Relations between Panama and the United States have been conflictive since the first days of the implementation of the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty. On June 24, 1904, the United States government implemented the Dingley tariff, which took away the ports of Cristóbal and La Boca from the Republic of Panama. In this sense, it established post offices and customs that harmed Panamanian trade. From then on, Panama’s struggle has always been arduous and constant and has not yet ended, even though 25 years ago Panama received the Canal. This investigation analyzes the origins of the Dingley tariff and its repercussions for Panamanian society. The Panamanian protests and the signing of the Taft agreement as a temporary measure, while the work on the Canal was being completed. It also explains that, in 1923, the United States Secretary of State requested its elimination because the canal had already been opened to world trade and the reactions of the Panamanian government at that time.

Resistance and smuggling in Gunayala

2025-08-19T15:56:24+00:00

The town of Digir (Tigre) on December 9 and 20, 1962 suffered an attack by the Panamanian national guard, as did what happened in February 1925 due to the commercial exchange that existed and exists between Colombian vessels and the communities guna, but for the government this trade was contraband in the area, so they tried to control it. However, the Panamanian police abruptly invaded the town, causing bloodshed in the community and their confrontation with the guna authorities. Therefore, we will focus on knowing the causes of the conflict, what happened and the debates that arose in order to find a solution to the conflict. The methodology was based on the use of private stories and interviews with the protagonists themselves. See also the journalistic version of the events of the time. Among the results of the investigation, it is concluded that the events occurred due to the lack of a development policy in the region, as occurs today in Gunayala.

Caudillismo, Populism and Nationalism in Latin America

2025-08-19T16:14:39+00:00

The ideas we have discussed are the product of an exhaustive analysis of fundamental concepts in Conceptual, Political, and Comparative History, examining their evolution and significance in historiography. Furthermore, our effort questions official narratives and seeks alternative versions to better understand historical phenomena. The usefulness of historical knowledge in interpreting contemporary problems is emphasized. Finally, the essay proposes the deconstruction of the concepts of Caudillismo, Populismo, and Nationalism for their coherent and effective use in academic analysis.

Panamanian nationalism versus the pragmatic monroist Policy of the United States (1960-1964)

2025-08-19T16:52:43+00:00

This article provides a descriptive, analytical approach to certain historical events of the Panamanian nation in the first half of the 20th century, using other historical-philosophical perspectives. This approach allows us to consider the “Why?” of US political actions and their impact on our territory. From this historical-philosophical perspective, the nationalist struggles of the Panamanian people against the US colonial enclave in the Canal Zone and the radical, pragmatic Monroeist policy of the United States will be analyzed. As a result, during the Roberto Chiari administration, Panamanians demanded the elimination of the US presence and the revision of the treaties that granted the US privileges over the Canal. The conflict reached its peak on January 9, 1964. The confrontation between Panamanian nationalism and the pragmatic Monroeist policy of the United States during this first period of the 20th century highlighted Panama’s struggle for self-determination and Washington’s resistance to ceding the strategic power afforded it by the Canal Zone, marking a turning point in Panamanian history and on the path to the full recovery of the Canal in 1999. In 2001, after the Monroe Doctrine and almost a century and a half after the emergence of the pragmatic current in the United States, these two principles still influence American policy.

The Monroe Doctrine and its application in the United States military intervention in the Dominican Republic 1916-1924

2025-08-19T16:59:11+00:00

In 2023, it was the 200th anniversary of the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, it has been one of the great architects of the foreign policy of the United States of America, throughout all this time, being applied depending on the circumstances, interests and needs, when President James Monroe promulgated the postulates of the Monroe Doctrine, projected the vision of how the United States could take advantage of that scenario of uncertainties, revolutions, emancipations, instability, characteristic of the nineteenth century, in relation to the newly created Latin American nations. However, by the twentieth century, many Latin American nations had unfortunately not been able to overcome obstacles to the consolidation of a well-strengthened State through its institutions and the members that make up its society; It should be noted that this scenario of social, economic, political, cultural instability, among other aspects, was taken advantage of by the United States.

“Geopsyche of a nation: essays on a landform” by Ariadna García Rodríguez

2025-08-19T18:03:59+00:00

Geopsiguis of a Nation: Essays on a Terrestrial Form, by Ariadne García, is a book whose title and cover spark interest in reading and exploring its contents. Initially, the concept of “Geopsiguis” leads the reader to ponder the origin of this term and to question the purposes for which it is used.

The body as a literary territory

2025-08-19T18:11:52+00:00

This article examines bodily representations and gender constructions in the short story collection “Cómo ser Charles Atlas” by Panamanian writer Pedro Crenes Castro. Through detailed textual analysis grounded in feminist critical theory and gender studies, it argues that Crenes Castro configures the body as a literary territory where traditional notions of masculinity and femininity are negotiated, reinforced, and subverted. The research specifically analyzes six stories from the collection, identifying recurring patterns: the crisis of hegemonic masculinity, the sociocultural surveillance of the female body, the representation of dissident corporealities, and the intersection between body, gender, and death. The article concludes that Crenes Castro’s work offers a complex vision of gendered corporeality that significantly contributes to the contemporary Central American literary tradition, proposing critical readings of gender roles within the Panamanian sociocultural context.

Geographical place and historical memory in the poetic work of Dulce María Loynaz

2025-08-19T18:31:14+00:00

This article analyzes the poetics of Dulce Maria Loynaz, the Cuban writer who won the Cervantes Prize for Literature in 1992 and a life member from that same year until 1959 in which she died of the Academy of the Language of Cuba. It analyzes its poetic production, not from the phonic and phonological procedures, nor from the rhythm or the riding, but from the sign, signified, significant and referent, of the geographical context as a riding of itself that reveals its psychological position in front of dignify of this space transpired in rooting, estrangement, discrimination and identity. It is the article in short the decantation of its literary aesthetics from the meaning it had for the social; That death of the life outside that in the moral sense or in its interior subvert in anguish, rebellion and manipulation towards the freedom embodied in the act of writing poetry.

Politics and social complaint in Remón´s novel

2025-08-19T19:24:01+00:00

This article aims to investigate the mechanisms of the political and social denunciation in La novela de Remón, written by Juan Antonio Gómez and published in 2014. The novel tells the conspiracy and murder of President José Antonio Remón Cantera on January 2, 1955, in Panama City, a crime that constituted the only magnicide in the history of Panama and that brought innumerable political consequences. From the selection and analysis of chosen fragments, it will be concluded that this novel serves as a vehicle to denounce the political and proper social problems that, still today, afflict Panamanian society.

Reading and testimony in When the birds did not sing

2025-08-19T19:31:24+00:00

Ritual readings were key to disseminating the testimonial volume, When the Birds Didn’t Sing: Stories of the Armed Conflict in Colombia (2022). They were an itinerant pedagogy that, through reading the stories aloud and listening to the opinions of other victims, achieved a close listening process. Although little research has been conducted on this topic, some previous work addresses the importance of these readings in disseminating the testimonial volume. This study aimed to understand the value of these readings in the creation of Volume VI and in the dissemination of its testimonial accounts. After discussing the sources, we conclude that the use of testimony is crucial for recovering traumatic memories through ethical and respectful listening, and that ritual readings are a didactic and symbolic tool for transmitting the volume’s stories.

The ethnographic method in artistic research

2025-08-19T19:52:28+00:00

This essay presents a research methodology which is anchored in feminist anthropology. It introduces a series of ethnographic practices which resulted from an approach to Ana Gallardo’s (Rosario, 1948) artistic practice as fieldwork. Based on a series of conversations with the artist, which shaped the concept of expanded listening, I propose an analysis of how ethnography plays in artistic research. To do so, I resort to the following concepts: epistemic decoloniality (in relation to the conditions and mechanisms of artistic production); storytelling as a resource for ethnographic narrative; ethnographic methodology, and feminist ethnography. Finally, I reflect on the writing that weaves the ethnographic notes with the artist’s testimonies. From this conceptual framework, along with a collaborative methodology carried out during the inquiry process, I pose this question: How can ethnographic methodologies be used as an approach to an “entangled” artistic practice? In order to answer this question, I develop the concept of the tangle as a metaphor of the origins of Gallardo’s creative process.

Analysis of the pronunciation of the voice occlusive phonemes /b/ and /d/ in a group of Chinese students

2025-08-19T20:06:33+00:00

This paper investigates the factors that determine the maintenance of voiceless realization of the Spanish voiced stop phonemes /b/ and /d/ in a sample of Chinese students. Since the plosive consonant system of Mandarin Chinese does not contain voiced phonemes, it is common for Chinese students to pronounce the consonants /b/ and /d/ with voiceless realizations. The results of this work, conducted on a sample of nine Chinese students of the Master of Higher Studies of the Spanish Language at the University of Malaga (all of them Mandarin speakers), show that deaf realization occurs mainly when the consonant is found in initial word position. Among the external factors, the speakers with a higher accredited level in the Spanish language who have lived in Spain the longest are those who correctly pronounce voiced stops.

Challenges of teaching english in a multilingual classroom

2025-08-19T20:15:20+00:00

The exposure of English in education has led to many countries becoming bilingual or even multilingual rather monolingual. So, teaching English to MLs has turned into a demanding challenge for teachers due to the linguistic background in the classrooms. However, challenges are neither perturbing nor overwhelming. Thus, teaching without challenges is featureless and ineffective. This systematic review aimed to explore the challenges English teachers face when teaching English in multilingual classrooms. Some of the challenges faced were lack of teacher training, appropriate use of methods and strategies by the teachers, lack of English proficiency among learners due to their linguistic backgrounds, and lack of resources. For this study, 20 articles published between 2010 and 2023 were collected to analyze their data and main findings about teaching English to MLs. Major findings showed methods that can be applied in multilingualism as well as strategies to promote teachers and students’ interaction in the classroom. Finally, in this systematic review, consistent teacher training programmers are required. It is imperative to have committed, innovative, dynamic, empathetic, and organized teachers to promote quality multilingual education, teachers should be expertise in the discipline.

Influence of social variables on the language use of a sample of primary school students

2025-08-19T20:29:41+00:00

Discourse Analysis, a discipline within Text Linguistics, helps us understand that every text is a product of the social and cultural context of its time and of a particular group of human beings. There is a specific group that often goes unnoticed in linguistic and discourse studies: children. This study aims to describe the repertoire of adjectives used by a sample of elementary school students used to characterize men and women, analyzing the influence of variables such as gender, school grade, and family type on this repertoire. To carry out this research, a corpus was compiled from responses to a questionnaire in which students had to provide a written description of both sexes. A non-probabilistic sample was used, which was analyzed with a computer tool to observe adjective frequency and describe them qualitatively. Differences were found in how students describe men and women, which could be related to the proposed study variables. These findings demonstrate the influence of social variables on children’s language use.

Self-learning

2025-08-19T20:33:37+00:00

The primary purpose of this investigative work is to analyze the educational skills related to the technological and communicational mediation in higher education practice, as well as the challenges it presents in the configuration and reconfiguration of roles for both teachers and students. Enhancing self- directed learning through digital platforms allows for the observation of this essential complement in motivating both educators and students in the use of these tools for their professional development. One platform was analyzed, allowing for the measurement of the interactions required between educator and learner to achieve meaningful learning, supporting their professional and career development. A descriptive methodology was employed to observe the synchronous and asynchronous meetings between students and teachers. It is important to note that due to the discipline required for self-directed learning, a postgraduate group was selected, as these groups generally have greater financial resources to access stable internet plans, high-capacity mobile devices, or desktop or portable computers. These characteristics are highlighted because, in recent years, such tools have been incorporated not only into the educational sphere but also into the workforce, contributing to the diversification and introduction of remote and distance work.